FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
Of the 24 members of Congress who have appeared three or more times in 2011 on any of the five Sunday morning shows (i.e., CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox or CNN), according to Roll Call‘s ongoing tally, 16, or two-thirds, have been Republicans. Just seven, or 29 percent, have been Democrats. (The other one was Sen. […]
There was some Congressional debate over extending certain parts of the Patriot Act last week– this Institute for Public Accuracy release is a helpful guide to some of the criticisms of the Act. But don’t let anyone tell you there wasn’t much coverage of this. On Friday, NBC Nightly News skipped reporting on what was […]
There have been a lot of complaints about New York Times business reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin being too cozy with the Wall Street powers that he’s covering. Some of those critics are in-house; a New York magazine article went so far as to quote a Times staffer who (like several others at the paper) likened […]
At Electronic Intifada, Ali Abunimah challenges the skewed history coming from Ethan Bronner in the New York Times (5/15/11). In trying to explain the context for the recent Palestinian protests, Bronner wrote: After Israel declared independence on May 15, 1948, armies from neighboring Arab states attacked the new nation; during the war that followed, hundreds […]
Labor journalist Mike Elk (In These Times, 5/16/11) made an excellent point after watching NBC host David Gregory interview Newt Gingrich on Sunday’s Meet the Press (5/15/11). Elk wrote: Speaking yesterday on Meet the Press, Republican presidential candidate and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said that “the Obama system of the National […]
It’s bad enough that corporate media are having such an ill-informed debate about whether torturing some prisoners helped find Osama bin Laden. But considering whom the media invite to this debate, it’s probably not a surprise. Take yesterday’s Sunday shows (please!). On NBC‘s Meet the Press, Obama national security adviser Thomas Donilon basically refused to […]
NBC Nightly News on Saturday (4/29/11) had a pretty standard report on the politics of gas prices: Republicans blame Obama, and some Democrats are talking up the idea of raising taxes on oil companies. “Democrats call the profits excessive, and portray Republicans as wedded to oil interests,” correspondent Mike Viqueira explained. Then NBC introduced an […]
MSNBC host has been receiving praise for going after his NBC bosses–as the L.A. Times noted today (4/29/11): MSNBC commentator Lawrence O’Donnell escalated attacks on NBC executives this week. On his MSNBC show the Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell Wednesday night, he accused NBC (another division of his own company) of allowing the Celebrity Apprentice […]
NBC anchor David Gregory on NBC Nightly News (4/9/11) explaining how sees Obama’s 2012 strategy: And I thought what was striking about what the president said, if you listen to his comments made Friday night, he sounded very much like a Republican talking about the need to cut spending. That’s the re-election play here. He […]
While the Fukushima nuclear disaster has gotten plenty of attention on network programming, the debate has consistently overlooked the most fundamental question of whether nuclear power can be harnessed safely (FAIR Blog, 3/14/11). In asking why this question remains muted, a look at their boards of directors reveals that all three major broadcast networks share […]
Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Tribune writes: One estimate has 8,000 TV and radio reporters and support staff from around the world in London covering the nuptials. CNN alone is said to be sending 50 U.S. staffers to complement 75 from its London bureau. It’s bound to be better television than the federal government’s budget […]
On Sunday’s episode of NBC‘s Chris Matthews Show (4/3/11), the panel actually talked about criticism of the mainstream media, with some citing the media’s Iraq War debacle as a major factor in the rise of blogosphere-based media criticism. The discussion got somewhat confused along the way, as this segued into a discussion of the entirely […]
There’s been plenty of talk about NBC‘s decision to skip the news about General Electric‘s ability to make huge profits and pay zero taxes. Now, it’s possible that everyoneat NBC misplaced theircopies of the March 25 New York Times, but the GE story finally made it to the NBC Nightly News yesterday–in a report that […]
The Washington Post‘s Paul Farhi has a piece today (3/30/11) about NBC‘s non-coverage of the revelation that part-owner General Electric is making piles of money–and paying no federal taxes.I’m quoted in it. Farhi breaks it down, and gets an NBC response: It’s the kind of accountability journalism that makes readers raise an eyebrow, if it […]
You may have heard about the New York Times report (3/25/11) explaining that General Electric made $14 billion in worldwide profits in 2010–and paid the federal government exactly nothing in taxes. The Times explained this is”based on an aggressive strategy that mixes fierce lobbying for tax breaks and innovative accounting that enables it to concentrate […]
From Meet the Press (3/27/11): GREGORY: I’ll start with you, Ted Koppel. You spent time, in your early days as a correspondent, with Henry Kissinger. KOPPEL: I did. GREGORY: Who knew something about the big ideas for the world. Is this administration getting the big ideas right in the–in the tumult of the Middle East? […]
From Wednesday’s NBC Nightly News (3/9/11), courtesy of reporter Lisa Myers: We last saw O’Keefe wearing a fur coat and playing a pimp when he managed to take down the liberal group ACORN. No we didn’t. As should be well-known by now, O’Keefe used footage of himself wearing a “pimp” costume in his ACORN videos–but […]
Whether the abrupt termination of MSNBC host Keith Olbermann’s contract on January 21 was connected to Olbermann’s left-of-center politics or the recent purchase of NBC by Comcast from General Electric, the host’s departure provides an opportunity to reflect on the bigger picture. MSNBC’s current ‘liberal’ identity is generally attributed to Olbermann, whose success offered compelling […]
As we noted here, there weren’t many labor voices booked on the Sunday morning chat shows. One, actually–Richard Trumka from the AFL-CIO. ABC’s This Week featured four governors (two Democrats, two Republicans) talking about their fiscal problems. CBS‘s Face the Nation had a soft interview with New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie. Host Bob Schieffer […]
As best I can tell, the labor battle in Wisconsin is a big story–and maybe the biggest labor story in years. But as Amanda Terkel reported at the Huffington Post, that doesn’t mean you’re going to see union advocates on the Sunday chat shows. Terkel noted: A union official told the Huffington Post that when […]
